Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Jerry Brown unveils green job plan


Jerry Brown unveiled his green jobs initiative today, saying he wants to appoint a czar to head efforts to create 500,000 jobs in renewable energy in California.

Brown and businesswoman Meg Whitman are battling to be the next governor.
The San Jose Mercury News says Brown, who pushed for energy-efficiency standards when he was first governor in the 1970s, wants California to produce 20,000 additional megawatts of renewable electricity by 2020 by placing solar systems on schools, parking structures and commercial structures, and by pursuing incentives for energy-efficiency programs for homes and businesses.

His proposal, according to earth2tech's Katie Fehrenbacher, calls for 12,000 megawatts of solar photovoltaics, 8,000 megawatts of large scale solar thermal, more energy storage and the required transmission lines to connect solar thermal to consumers that would use it.

Brown also said he wants to cut red tape in the permit process required for transmission lines to be built.

He made his comments in Silicon Valley, the home turf of Republican Republican nominee Meg Whitman. She doesn't have an official green jobs position on her Web site http://www.megwhitman.com/platform_topic.php?type=jobs&page=1 but has said she wants to suspend AB 32, the state's greenhouse gas bill. She also lists tax credits and tax cuts to stimulate job growth. Tax cuts include elimination of the $800 start-up fee businesses are required to pay and a factory tax, and getting rid of the state's capital gains tax.

She would provide a tax credit to encourage investment for agriculture in water conservation technology and increase the research and development tax credit offered to business from 15% to 20%.

It's a campaign that we at the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization will watch closely.
After all, the Valley has some of the highest energy bills and lowest incomes in the state.
The SJVCEO is a nonprofit dedicated to improving our region's quality of life by increasing its production and use of clean and alternative energy. The SJVCEO works with cities and counties and public and private organizations to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the eight-county region of the San Joaquin Valley.



1 comment:

Brian Lefever-Titan Armor said...

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